Catalytic dehydrogenation processes generally include the conversion of a paraffin alkylaromatic to the corresponding olefin in the presence of a dehydrogenation catalyst. During such dehydrogenation processes, it is desirable to maintain both high levels of conversion and high levels of selectivity. Unfortunately, dehydrogenation catalysts tend to lose activity when exposed to reaction environments, thereby reducing the level of conversion and/or the level of selectivity. Such losses may result in an undesirable loss of process efficiency. Various methods for catalyst regeneration exist, but such methods generally involve stopping the reaction process and in some cases, removing the catalyst for external regeneration, resulting in increased costs, such as costs related to heat loss and lost production.
One regeneration method includes the addition of a catalyst life extender to the dehydrogenation process. Such processes may avoid/delay the need for catalyst removal from the reaction vessel for regeneration and/or disposal. Unfortunately, such processes generally have required costly implementation systems to avoid system problems, such as fouling and plugging of the process lines.
Therefore, it is desirable to overcome catalyst degradation, while at the same time ensuring that such methods of overcoming the degradation do not result in costly implementation systems, fouling and/or plugging.